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Wash. exchange: 65k have signed up for insurance

Posted on December 26, 2013 by Shanna Sheridan, Editor

AP News

SEATTLE, Wash. -Officials say more than 65,000 people have signed up for private insurance since October 1 through the state’s new health care exchange, an increase of about 4,000 people since the beginning of December.

Another 69,000 people need to finish enrollment by paying.

The exchange had a goal of signing up 130,000 people into private insurance plans by Jan. 1.

In total, the number of people purchasing private insurance and those enrolling in free insurance through Medicaid is nearly 214,000.

More than 100,000 of those signing up are newly eligible to the expanded Medicaid.

Before health care reform went into effect, an estimated one million Washington residents did not have health insurance.

The exchange also updated numbers for their call center.

In December, the call center handled about 20 percent of 230,000 calls that came in.